Stats

January 11, 2012

Romney Cruises

It's Mitt Romney in a walk in the 2012 New Hampshire Primary. Romney got just under 40% of the vote with Ron Paul finishing second at 23% and Jon Huntsman third at 17%.

Major broadcast networks declared Romney the winner as soon as all polls closed at 8 p.m.

But will Romney's margin of victory be viewed as wide enough to portray him as a clear, strong front-runner?

It appeared that the answer is yes.

As returns poured in, Romney had 39 percent of the vote with nearly 90 percent of the voting precincts reporting.

A battle for second place was expected, with Huntsman riding a late mini-surge to battle Paul.

But Paul was at 23 percent and Huntsman at 17 percent, while former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum split the hard-line conservative vote, with 9 percent each.

I'd have to say this makes Romney the prohibitive favorite going forwards. His most serious remaining obstacle is the $2.3 million negative ad campaign that Newt Gingrich supporters have recently launched in South Carolina.

A super PAC supporting Mr. Gingrich will start running anti-Romney ads this week, painting him as a businessman who sought to enrich himself by buying companies, closing them down and leaving people out of work.